Financial Stress While Building a Business
Business can be tough. There are ups and downs. Good days and bad days. Sometimes it feels like you are riding an emotional roller coaster. I rode it for years. But it’s stressful, isn’t fun, and most of the time you feel out of control.
I heard one time that the emotional roller coaster comes from “trying to control things that are not within your control”. I totally agree. And there are a bunch of things in network marketing that you can’t control. So what CAN you control?
A few things. You can control your activity. You can control who you talk to. You can control how much personal development and personal growth you do personally. You can control the company you pick. It’s really a small list compared to what you CAN’T control.
The most often overlooked thing that you CAN control is your finances. When I first got into network marketing I had never owned a business before. When I made money, I just acted the way I did as an employee. I treated it as a bonus and went out and spent it. But that’s not how business work. Businesses take that money and invest it back into the business. They use it as fuel to grow the business faster.
While reading Business of the 21st Century I read a line that says “Most people feed themselves and starve their business”. I realized that some of the stress I was feeling was that I spent all the money I made from my business, and then when it came time to invest in personal development, trips, team building, marketing and company events, I didn’t have anything left. Then I was left scrambling trying to figure out how to find the money.
So I made some changes. I created a business bank account, and EVERY dollar I made from my business went into that account. That meant I had to figure out some of my other money problems (money problems that I came into the business with) another way. It was hard work. It meant I had to do two things at once for a while. But the result? The result was that I started looking at the strength of my asset, not the size of my paycheck. If someone got promoted and I made a bit less… it didn’t matter, because I wasn’t attached to the income.
I started following Kioysaki’s gameplan to create wealth. He said if he was to do it all over again, he would set it up like this:
1. Build a Network Marketing Company (While keeping your job)
2. Invest 100% of the income from the NWM company back into it (While keeping your job)
3. Buy Real Estate (Once you are making too much to invest it all back into the business)
4. Quit your job (Once you have enough passive income for real estate)
This is amazing advice about how to create true generational wealth. For the most part, true lifelong residual income no longer exists in network marketing. With social media, it is easier than ever for leaders to leave and take full teams of people with them. You need a plan if you want to create wealth that will be generational. Having said that, there is no better place on the planet to create cash (to invest with) than what you can do in NWM, and you can do it while having a fun lifestyle.
The best part of following this plan for me, was the fact that it allowed me to get off the emotional roller coaster. As soon as I detached from the income I was able to treat it like a business. It wasn’t the money that I was using to feed my family. It was an asset that I was building for my future.
The poor think week to week.
The middle class think month to month.
The rich think year to year.
The ultra rich think decade to decade.
It’s hard to keep “decade to decade” in perspective when you are thinking about how to pay rent this month. I have watched so many good people make really poor choices (in many different NWM companies) because they were in a place where they had to do what was “best for their family”. What they usually mean is what is best for them this month. What is best for you this week/month is to run away from any kind of pain. What is best for you “decade to decade” is to work through problems and learn the lessons you need to learn long term. Thinking long term is the absolute best thing you can do for yourself to get off the crazy emotional roller coaster.
Now, if your goal is to make an extra $500 per month so that you can go on one vacation a year, then this advice doesn’t apply. But if you want to create massive long-term wealth, then you need to stop feeding yourself and starving your business.
Jimmie Jayes
P.S.- “Job Income” doesn’t have to be a job. It just needs to be a consistent income source that you can live off of. The benefit to a job is that it helps when it comes to buying real estate. For me, my “Job Income” is coaching. I work one day a week and that covers all of our families expenses. It doesn’t matter what it is… it only matter that it allows you to not “starve your business”.
